This very practical book guides museums on how to create the highest quality experience possible for their visitors. Creating an environment that supports visitor engagement with collections means examining every stage of the visit, from the initial impetus to go to a particular institution, to front-of-house management, interpretive approach and qualitative analysis afterwards. This holistic approach will be immensely helpful to museums in meeting the needs and expectations of visitors and building their audience. This book features: includes chapter introductions and discussion sections supporting case studies to show how ideas are put into practice a lavish selection of tables, figures and plates to support and illustrate the discussion boxes showing ideas, models and planning suggestions to guide development an up-to-date bibliography of landmark research. The Engaging Museum offers a set of principles that can be adapted to any museum in any location and will be a valuable resource for institutions of every shape and size, as well as a vital addition to the reading lists of museum studies students.
"This book offers a complex theoretical intervention into rhetorical education and its unrealized potential in regard to engagement with social justice"--
This very practical book guides museums on how to create the highest quality experience possible for their visitors. Creating an environment that supports visitor engagement with collections means examining every stage of the visit, from the initial impetus to go to a particular institution, to front-of-house management, interpretive approach and qualitative analysis afterwards. This holistic approach will be immensely helpful to museums in meeting the needs and expectations of visitors and building their audience. This book features: includes chapter introductions and discussion sections supporting case studies to show how ideas are put into practice a lavish selection of tables, figures and plates to support and illustrate the discussion boxes showing ideas, models and planning suggestions to guide development an up-to-date bibliography of landmark research. The Engaging Museum offers a set of principles that can be adapted to any museum in any location and will be a valuable resource for institutions of every shape and size, as well as a vital addition to the reading lists of museum studies students.
Promoting the expansion of art in society and education, this book highlights the significance of the arts as an instrument of social justice, inclusion, equity, and protection of the environment. Including twenty-seven diverse case studies of socially engaged art practice with groups like the Black Lives Matter movement, the LGBTQ community, and Rikers Island, this book guides art educators toward innovative, transdisciplinary, and diverse methodologies. A valuable resource on creating spaces for change, it addresses the relationships between artists and educators, museums and communities.
Designing Museum Experiences is a “how-to” book for creating visitor-centered museums that emotionally and intellectually connect with museum visitors, stakeholders, and donors. Museums are changing from static, monolithic, and encyclopedic institutions to institutions that are visitor-centric, with shared authority that allows museum and visitors to become co-creators in content creation. Museum content is also changing, from static content to dynamic, evolving content that is multi-cultural and transparent regarding the evolution of facts and histories, allowing multi-person interpretations of events. Designing Museum Experiences leads readers through the methods and tools of the three stages of a museum visit (Pre-visit, In-Person Visit, and Post-visit), with a goal of motivating visitors to return and revisit the museum in the future. This museum visitation loop creates meaningful intellectual, emotional, and experiential value for the visitor. Using the business-world-proven methodologies of user centered design, Museum Visitor Experience leads the reader through the process of creating value for the visitor. Providing consistent messaging at all touchpoints (website, social media, museum staff visitor services, museum signage, etc.) creates a trusted bond between visitor and museum. The tools used to increase understanding of and encourage empathy for the museum visitor, and understand visitor motivations include: Empathy Mapping, Personas, Audience segmentation, Visitor Journey Mapping, Service Design Blueprints, System Mapping, Content Mapping, Museum Context Mapping, Stakeholder Mapping, and the Visitor Value Proposition. In the end, the reason for using the tools is to empower visitors and meet their emotional and intellectual needs, with the goal of creating a lifelong bond between museum and visitor. This is especially important as museums face a new post COVID-19 reality; only the most nimble, visitor-centered museums are likely to survive. The companion website to Designing Museum Experiences features: Links to additional visitor-centered museum information Downloadable sample documents and templates Bibliography of sources for further reading Online glossary of museum visitor experience terms Daily checklists of “how-to” provide and receive visitor-centered experiences More than 50 associated Designing Museum Experiences documents
This book presents a critical analysis of the power and opportunity created in the implementation of community engaged practices within art museums, by looking at the networks connecting art museums to community organizations, artists and residents. The Art Museum Redefined places the interaction of art museums and urban neighbourhoods as the central focus of the study, to investigate how museums and artists collaborate with residents and local community groups. Rather than defining the community solely from the perspective of a museum looking out at its audience, the research examines the larger networks of art organizing and creative activism connected to the museum that are active across the neighbourhood. Taylor's research encompasses the grassroots efforts of local groups and their collaboration with museums and other art institutions that are extending their reach outside their physical walls and into the community. This focus on social engagement speaks to recent emphasis in cultural policy on cultural equity and inclusion, creative place-making and community engagement at neighbourhood and city-levels, and will be of interest to students, scholars and policy-makers alike.
In glorious variety this book describes over 70 of London's museums. From the internationally famous--the Victoria & Albert, the National Gallery--to the little known--Guidhall Art Gallery, the Fan Museum--it provides a critical account of the whole museum experience from exhibits to cafs. Illustrations.
Engaging Communities in Museums is designed for museum professionals who are hungry for information about how to design experiences in partnership with their communities. Providing an overview of the many ways that museums around the world have begun to listen more attentively to their audience, the book highlights the importance of listening to community and discusses the idea of relationship-building as an entry point to relevancy. Drawing on interviews and discussions with museum professionals around the world, as well as tangible, real-world examples, Allison showcases the many ways that museums, both large and small, are actively working with their communities and also provides a roadmap that demonstrates how museum professionals can listen more effectively to their audiences as they craft new experiences. The book also explores the fascinating nexus of community engagement and exhibit and experience development, thus taking museum professionals on a journey of discovery around community responsiveness and attention to audience. Engaging Communities in Museums provides a thorough comparison of development models from disparate venues, making the book a must-read for museum professionals who are looking for purpose and common-sense techniques that can guide their work with the communities that they serve. Students in museum studies courses will also find the text useful as a primer on community engagement in museums.
What does a museum do with a kindergartner who walks through the door? The growth of interest in young children learning in museums has joined the national conversation on early childhood education. Written by Sharon Shaffer, the founding Executive Director of the innovative Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center, this is the first book for museum professionals as well as students offering guidance on planning programming for young children.This groundbreaking book:-Explains the various ways in which children learn-Shows how to use this knowledge to design effective programs using a variety of teaching models-Includes examples of successful programs, tested activities, and a set of best practices
Engagement and Access: Innovative Approaches for Museums addresses how museums forge two-way communication and engaged participation through the use of community curation, social media, collaboration, and inquiry-based learning. Such approaches demonstrate how museums serve as thriving, central gathering places in communities and offer meaningful, creative educational experiences. This book addresses how museums forge two-way communication and engaged participation through the use of community curation, social media, collaboration, and inquiry-based learning. The examples of engagement and access in this volume are paradigmatic of a shift in thinking. Each of these case studies advocate for doing and listening. That is to say, these institutions understand the importance of meeting the needs of audiences. And, in the twenty-first century, those audiences are onsite as well as online. While they represent only a handful of initiatives and engaging experiences thriving in museums today, they help us to see engagement and access in terms of virtual collections, the crowd (as in crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, and crowdcrafting), and the onsite experience. The Innovative Approaches for Museums series offers case studies, written by scholars and practitioners from museums, galleries, and other institutions, that showcase the original, transformative, and sometimes wholly re-invented methods, techniques, systems, theories, and actions that demonstrate innovative work being done in the museum and cultural sector throughout the world. The authors come from a variety of institutions—in size, type, budget, audience, mission, and collection scope. Each volume offers ideas and support to those working in museums while serving as a resource and primer, as much as inspiration, for students and the museum staff and faculty training future professionals who will further develop future innovative approaches. Contributions by: Charles Chen, Anne Corso, Jan Freedman, William Hennessey, Ashley Hosler, J. Patrick Kociolek, Sarah Lampen, Jennifer L. Lindsay, Margot Note, Stephanie Parrish, Marisa J. Pascucci, Janet Sinclair, Siobhan Starrs, Barbara W. Stauffer, Eric Steen, and Alison Zeidman
